What is “Saturday Morning Garage Saleing”? This is one of my favorite traditions. Rosalie remembers it as, “a mother/daughter bonding moment. For years, every Saturday morning, between Spring General Conference and Fall General Conference, Mom would wake me and Charis up at the crack of dawn.” We wake up early, sleeping in is not for the weekends! We hit the road by 8:00 at the latest. Rosalie continues, “mom would choose the direction she wanted to go in, then we would follow the signs. I swear that Garage Saleing creates the worst drivers in the world. We would just be driving a long and all of the sudden Mom would hit the breaks, or swerve across the road, or flip a U-turn, just to get a better look at a sign. Drivers on Saturday morning, BEWARE!”
We go from garage sale to garage sale looking for the “find of the day.” What is a find of the day? The coolest thing in the world, of course. Like one week Mom found Boaris the Pig! This was a transvestite Turkish boar skin! It was too cool. The man went to Turkey boar hunting. He killed a female boar instead of a male boar so he had tusks put on it. At any rate the man’s wife hated this skin hanging on the wall (can you imagine!?!) so she sold it for $5.00 CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!?! What a steal. I on the other hand look for far more practical things such as the original Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, Uncle Wiggly, and Booby Trap games! TOO COOL! I have also gotten some great books and filled my book shelves and just two weeks ago I found some Strawberry Shortcake dolls for only $5.00 that was amazing! These people didn’t realize what they were selling. This was especially evident when Rosalie bought a Betsy McCall Doll for only a dollar, she took it home and found out it was worth $100! Alright, so you want to know where the practicality of it all comes in, ok so Rosalie and I have both bought some snow shoes! That was the coolest, a pair of $220 snow shoes for only $20! See it has saved a ton of money. After we have hunted for four hours we head home. There we find a house of very anxious brothers and a father to see what amazing stuff we pulled up. It is great fun to see them oo and ah over everything (or wonder why we waste our morning).
This is a great tradition. It has created some amazing one on one time with Mom, which has allowed me some great time to learn from and talk with her woman to woman. I have also learned a lot about being frugal, alright so buying a Turkish pig just because we laughed and laughed wasn’t frugal, but it brought months and months of laughs and jokes. But I have learned that you can get amazing deals on stuff at garage sales such as baby clothes. There is no need to buy new baby clothes for lots of money when you can go to garage sales and get next to new baby clothes for dirt cheap. I think this is an excellent tradition. It gives me something to look forward to. I know that if I can’t find time with Mom any other time in the week we will always have Saturday mornings. And it is different! How many people do you know that can say they go garage saleing with their mother on Saturday mornings!?! It also has taught me to be constantly thinking of other people. We are always at garage sales finding things for other people. The question “don’t you think so and so would love this?” or we find something totally cool and we ask, “who do we know that would totally appreciate this!?!” I LOVE IT! Like the time we found the next to pornographic ostrich egg for Mom's sister, Aunt M, or how about the luminescent lawn art that we passed around the ward for so long.
This game that we play will be continued through the years. I will take my daughters garage saleing and I probably will return for years to come to go with my mother. So now all you boys can look forward to me and my daughters thinking to ourselves, “hum, don’t you think this Finnish Reindeer Head belongs on Uncle J’s wall!?!” or “This bright orange bed spread would be perfect for Uncle N!” There is no where in our house that you can go without seeing the results of our amazing garage saleing skills. Some people sell amazing stuff! WOW! I spend most of my money on antique past times, such as my original board games, dolly dingle dolls, old books, antique wooden sleds etc. I plan on decorating my house in such an ambiance when I get married. This will preserve the fun I have had and foster many questions I am sure. And each thing will bring a fond memory of my Saturday mornings spent garage saleing with my mother!
Mother’s favorite garage sale item was definitely Boaris! One must understand that true meaning of this dumb pig. After this pig was bought, it was dressed up in all sorts of interesting get ups. It was left in the hall of the church with a chef’s hat on, an apron on, measuring spoons, and a wooden spoon, with a sign that said Congratulations on your new calling (this was left for a close family friend, Danette, who had been called as the relief society president). The next time we saw it, it was nailed to the roof of another family friend’s house with a red light on his nose, he was Boaris the Red Nosed Turkish Pig. That family friend then past it on to another family friend dressed in negligee, fake eye lashes, and big red lips. . . this was intended to be a lovely birthday present, I am sure. At any rate, the pig went back and forth from our family friends, with one joke to another joke. Mom says “there is no meaning to any of this, it is just fun!” The last place Boaris was seen was hanging on Brother J's apt wall at college. Someone walked in to his apartment and took it off the wall and it disappeared! SOMEONE STOLE BOARIS. Sometimes, the presents we find we know everyone will hate and just laugh their heads off at, others of them we know they will love and appreciate greatly! It makes a more cohesive neighborhood, no one knows what to expect, other than crazy,
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